A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-5.
Venture-Captain Roderus has long been one of the most reliable and steadfast allies of the Pathfinder Society in the nation of Katapesh, but the aging human has decided that it is time to retire from his long-held position. Roderus's retirement party draws in Pathfinders from across Golarion, but there are some who see his retirement as an opportunity to advance personal goals that go against the Pathfinder Society's interests. Amid the turmoil of a party turned crime scene, the PCs must uncover the true threat to the Society's stability in Katapesh—and perhaps make an unexpected new ally along the way.
Contents in Treason's Chains also contribute directly to the ongoing storyline of the Liberty's Edge faction.
I picked this scenario up because I had to prep for a convention and the convention support had not come through by my 'must have by this date' prep deadline.
The trick I discovered prepping it was 'showing' the players what they had to do for the tasks at the front of the scenario with carefully designed sheets then coming up with a few alternative suggestions for the skills involved with said tasks at a brief glance, encouraging players to offer other reasonable suggestions. I had fun using the utility NPC to flesh that out. There was also a great opportunity to play up the frictions within the Society as part of an argument, which helped with immersion.
For the intel-gathering section of the scenario, my players 'followed the rails' a bit, and were actually going to dump a lot more resources on a given NPC than was necessary,
The overnight encounter made for a very interesting time as the players had planned carefully and turned what might have been a challenging encounter into a challenge for the GM, but there was much fun had. MUCH.
For the key NPC, the players were reasonably convinced that there was an NPC race 'crime family' in the city, and they had no desire to upset said 'crime family'.
They handled the climax of the scenario with subtlety and panache, exceptionally so given the skills of some of the PCs involved.
I then had a chance to play, and the play experience was a bit different for the first two acts, with a cautionary tale of windows and 'how do they work, even?'.
Scenario is fun, easy enough to adjust slightly to make even more fun, and runs quick even if folks doubledown on the rp.
Shouldn't be run 'cold', but with two weeks of prep time it was *bleepin' golden.
Did anyone notice that it says that Lobda the goblin can get the books but then it says an alarm [is] "set to trigger if anyone other than Tistin Snive or Phlegos Dulm touches the desk."